I know this is long after the original post, but just in case someone else stumbles across it, I wanted to add my 2c's.

I have been on Risperdal for 6 years. I would say it's been a fantastic medicine, but it has caused a lot of symptoms in me. I am changing over to Geodon, and down to 0.25mg of Risperdal after 1 week. During the first week I had anxiety and restlessness, even though I'm moving to Geodon, which makes me believe these symptoms are purely side effect of withdrawal. I alleviated the anxiety with 25mg of Atarax at around 7pm each night. I also take Lamictal which helps me with mood stabilization. This is my current story, which brings me to a past experience that helped me get off an addictive medicine.

IMO, the Risperidone is causing these symptoms for me which mimic withdrawal from benzodiazepines I had back in 2007. What helped me was a mixture of mood stabilizer (I used Tegretol), an anti spasm medicine (I used Parafon), and an antianxiety (I used Atarax). These alleviated all of the withdrawal symptoms in me. Now, I understand not everyone is the same, and my experience may not work for others. I am also not a Doctor, so always check with a professional before acting on any of my info. But, this is my opinion and a story of what helped for me when withdrawing from a medicine. The withdrawal was the creeping anxiety feeling on left side arm and upper chest and under armpit. I find Atarax a good medicine for anxiety that is easy to just stop taking. The withdrawal causes nausea and abdominal spasms that made me feel as though my kidneys were going to shut down. The Parafon helped with this. The withdrawal made me mood swing rapidly from anxiety, despair and worry, to anger and irritability. The Tegretol worked best me back then. I now take Lamotrigine. I was off Benzodiazepines very quickly. This time, without using a muscle relaxant, I know I'll successfully withdraw from Risperdidone by end of next week using the Atarax and Lamictal. Obviously the Geodon is helping with the psychotic tendencies I would otherwise have. I use 25mg of Atarax and 100mg of Lamictal. Good luck.